In light of horrific wildfires, a historic drought and now the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy, the political understatement of the year has to be President Barack Obama's recent comment to MTV. Asked about climate change's absence from all presidential debates for the first time in a generation, he said, "I am surprised it didn't come up."

Instead of "surprised" he should have said "appalled" -- because that's what he and most Americans should be. As Scientific American reports, while no one weather event can be blamed on climate change, science now definitively "link(s) climate change directly to intense storms and other extreme weather events."

Of course, the reason the issue hasn't "come up" in a presidential campaign roiled by climate-related disasters is because many voters refuse to acknowledge that human-intensified climate change is real.

This is why, just days before the national election, New Jersey's Republican Gov. Chris Christie is a potentially more important political figure than anyone running for the White House. Thanks to his fame, his credibility among conservatives and his ubiquitous media presence during the cataclysm, he has the rare chance to persuade Republicans to discard their denialism and finally face reality.

"Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary." -- H. L. Mencken

I guess no one sent them the memo about climate-gate 1 & 2 and the latest biased numbers from the people who were behind both debacles. Even their own data that show that the earth's climate has not warmed for the past 16 years. If the data had not been manipulated there is no doubt that it would show cooling not warming. What a bunch of bozos.

For fu*ksake, I’m sick of hearing about “climate change.” Their newest bs response is to say, “Maybe it isn’t real. But are you willing to take the chance?” Yes. Yes I am because the “solutions” they’re proposing are so absurd.

I saw another fool on ted.com say that climate change doesn’t matter because what’s being proposed (renewable energy, less waste, respect for Moma Earth, etc.) is so wonderful.

18
posted on 11/04/2012 6:37:55 AM PST
by youngidiot
(He's got Mad Cow. She's living with him in the White House.)

Gov. Christie: "In an effort to stave off the next hurricane by reducing the impact of climate change, I'm going to permanently reduce New Jersey's carbon footprint. As of 9:30 AM today, all utility crews that were working to restore power are going to stop that work ... and they will be reassigned to a new task of shutting off power to the entire state. We're going to live like the GEICO cavemen from this point forward."

The author, David Sirota, was a Journalism and Political Science major. As evidenced by the confusion in his writing, Sirota has no background in or understanding of “science”.

Sirota is a typical ‘progressive’ who is a sucker for appeals to authority and is clearly lacking in critical thinking skills, which undoubtedly explains why he has a gig as contributor to the Salon web site. His choice of Scientific American as the authority behind his dubious climate claims is laughable.

21
posted on 11/04/2012 6:40:38 AM PST
by Zeppo
("Happy Pony is on - and I'm NOT missing Happy Pony")

Screw the fat windbag! Where was he when the Alabama utilty crews drove up to help the residents get power? These true Americans were cursed at and called scabs by organized union thugs who have Jersey and the Met area under their grip. Consequently, the Alabamans returned home without a word from Christie, Cuomo or Bloomberg.

I believe climate change is real, hell, it happens every day, I wake up in the cool of the morning and by 3PM its hotter than hell, - what I DON’T agree with is that is is a bad thing or that it is in any way out of the range of cyclic variation.
If we let the left define the words, we lose

Of course climate change is real, it changes from season to season and from year to year. We have droughts and floods, cold winters and some years, no winter at all. It is the “man made” part that I disagree with.

Ditto... your post is most-excellent. I have grown weary of being called an ignorant denier. Until and unless the left provides mathematical proofs then I will remain convinced that the earth's climate is influenced by the wobble of earth's axis and the varying non-linear cosmic ray bombardment from our nearest star. God gave us the gift of life on this planet, and it is beyond arrogance and presumptuousness to think that humans have the power to determine the climate on our planet merely by controlling CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

41
posted on 11/04/2012 8:06:57 AM PST
by gcraig
(Freedom is not free)

Chris Christie is a true treasure to this country. His ass is so big it blocks out at least 25% of all the harmful UV rays from the sun. He is however, a Democrat, a great big Blue Dog Democrat. So just say it, let it go and let him go. He doesn’t represent me or my party in any shape, matter or form.

By the way I see how that Hope we get some help, and Change your underware because they’re pulling guns on us because we don’t have anything to give them for free is going in New York.

By the way please turn Bloomberg loose by himself in the wiped out areas. Then put that on Tru TV later. That would be a hoot! I bet he could run a New York Marathon trying to get away!

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